There are a variety of known ankle brace designs of what are frequently called clamshell ankle braces. These braces consist of a pair of shells and body joint liners, that attach to either side of the ankle joint. They are fitted following common soft tissue ankle injuries, such as what is known as an inversion injury which is accompanied by oedema (swollen tissue). Following the injury regaining ones health and fitness as quickly as possible is very important. A factor influencing the healing process, is the ease with which tissue fluid drains from the injury site. Also the muscles surrounding the body joint may be damaged which may effect a person's balance.
Existing braces provide a moulded foam liner with a straight channel running up the middle of the liner. This channel provides an area of lesser pressure and so encourages drainage of tissue fluid following the common inversion injury. Some examples of prior art are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,844,094, 5,389,065 and 5,630,792.
“Proprioception” refers to a sense of position for a body. In the soft tissues around joints there are “sense of position receptors” which provide information to the brain which then in a reflex fashion instructs muscle to move to control position or movement. Although ligaments stabilise joints in a static sense, it is the dynamic stabilisation of joints achieved by muscles that cross them, that is primary in control. After an injury there is a proprioceptive lag which makes the ankle more susceptible to a lack of stabilisation because the muscle reflex is less responsive.
It has been found that many of the known body joint liners fail to achieve satisfactory results in that the healing process which involves the movement of tissue fluids can be too slow and the liner can be too uncomfortable to wear due to high skin pressures.